David CERTAIN Basses

Is anyone out there owning/playing or tried these Fender style basses. They are assembled in St Louis MO. and appear to offer a good bang for the buck ?

I am curious as to why these basses are not as main stream as say Warmouth, ESP, or other like basses. The builder himself makes no bones about the "Asian" secret of pickups that he favors over more popular and costly American ones.

Love my CertainBass- didn't enjoy the experience of having it built.
David is an OK dude- but he couldn't be bothered to rush a job or return an email.
Most CertainBass owners LOVE their instruments- many had the same experience of slow build little communication.
My two cents? Try and find one you like that he already assembled.

I can't comment about his basses...I don't own one yet. However, I LOVE his "Variometers". I have on on my VM Precision & my VM Jazz 70s. I love what it does for them tonally. On the Precision, in particular, it replaced what I had considered to be a completely useless "tone" control, and gave me many more choices as to what I wanted the sound to be.

They're worth checking out, and are a real value, especially compared to the StellarTone ToneStyler.

I emailed DC about one of his builds that was for sale here in the Classifieds awhile back. I asked a couple of polite questions. His snarky reply made me 100% "certain" that I will never own one of his basses! JMHO of course, YMMV.

I purchased one a few weeks ago off TB Classifieds&#8230;it was $595.
I have not played any shows with this bass but it's sitting right here on my couch and I have been playing it since I received it..I have an ACME B 1 with my Eden WT550 and at low volumes it sounds great...it's extremely well made..take a close look at the nut&#8230;it sets up and has all the classic J Tones.. the weight is just right for me&#8230;I look forward to cranking this bass up and playing a few sets&#8230;I had a few email exchanges with him and they were fine..he answered my questions.

Let me also add that I had several email contacts and a phone call with David Certain before I ever bought anything from him, and his dealings with me were always informative and professional. He even helped me with wiring instructions for a DC Variometer that I bought here on TB used, in which he made no profit from my purchase at all. This and my other dealings with him resulted in me also buying a new custom Jazz control plate w/Variometer from him directly.